Page 39 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

“Me.”

“Oh, and you’re an expert on date venues?”

He took a deep breath. Did she have to argue about everything? “In this instance, yes. Do you really want our first date to be in the woods?” He signaled around and shrugged. Okay, he had to admit these woods held a lot of charm. They were warm, friendly, inviting. There were trees with moss hanging from the branches, trees perfect for climbing, trees with long branches that reached out like gangly arms, and a little brook with perfect skipping stones. The other day, he’d seen a family of deer go through.

“It doesn’t matter what I want.” Allie caught his eye and smirked—like she’d known exactly what he’d been thinking. “Our first date has already come and gone. Now . . .” She clicked her boots together, stood tall, and placed her hands behind her back. “How do I sneak up on you?”

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t. We’ve been over this.”

“Oh, I’ll sneak up on you someday, whether it be next week or in three years, and when it happens, you’ll have to eat your words,” she said.

He chuckled. “I like your nerve.” He also liked the way she talked about their future. Like it was already a foregone conclusion. Maybe it was. He’d never dated anyone who’d talked about him like that—not even Maryanne when things had been good between them and he’d been about to propose to her.

And now, here he was with Allie, on their third not-date, and she was speaking about three years from now. He hadn’t even kissed her yet. Which she hated. She’d been tempting him every chance she got, but he’d held strong. This—whatever it was between them—was all so new and different. There was all the excitement of a new relationship, but it also felt safe. And he was enjoying the buildup of tension.

She waggled her brows at him. “Okay, the sun’s setting now, so if I wanted to run away from you, I’d run into the sun, correct?”

“That’s right.” Rays shone through the trees, fingers of light stretching and winding around the branches like they were in some kind of magic place. It was beautiful here.

Allie continued. “And I could also hide close, because no one expects a person fleeing to do that—so there’s a good chance they’d run right past me.”

“Yes—a good chance.”

“Which is why I should also look for ways to camouflage myself with branches or leaves or something if I can.”

“Exactly,” he said, “but this is all last-case scenario. If someone is chasing you, the first thing you want to do is use what time you have right out the gate to get as far away from them as possible. If you can’t outrun them, then you can try hiding.”

She nodded, looking up and to the left as she catalogued his words. “Okay, got it. Get as far away as possible.” Her shoulders shrugged and she fell out of her “army” stance. “Why do these drills always cover running away? Shouldn’t I be learning how to sneak up?”

A twinge of unease settled in his stomach. It was that gut instinct again, though logically his imagination was getting the best of him. The fire in Charleston had unnerved him. He’d gone and talked with the deputy who’d been in charge of the investigation into the fire, and the man said it’d been a grease fire.

He cleared his throat. “The same techniques you use to evade someone come in handy when you’re trying to sneak up on somebody.” That was true. After Allie’s birthday party, Brandon had driven back to North Carolina for a day to talk to their balloon man, Ralph. While he’d been there, another of his B.O.T.s buddies, Joseph Murphy, had tried a sneak attack.

It’d been wholly unexpected. That is, until after the attempt when Brandon had done a sweep of his vehicle and had found a tracking device. Turns out Pete hadn’t come to Harvest Ranch to tag him, but to light up his vehicle for the other players. He’d given himself up for the others. The cheats. But at least he was down to Chris Spencer and Andy. He’d gone from wondering when one person would show up to down to two players in no time at all.

“What if runnin’ and hidin’ don’t work?” she asked. “Then what do I do?”

His stomach twisted at the thought of what she’d have to do. “If running and hiding don’t work, then you fight. And you fight with everything in you.”

She nodded, determined. “Fight.”

“But I doubt that’ll ever be an issue for you,” he said, but he thought,I’ll never let that be an issue.

“What are we learning tonight, drill sergeant?” She went back into her stance and lifted her chin.

He stopped in front of her and glanced down. “Misdirection. How to use your surroundings to your advantage. Virginia has lots of hills, so we’re going with that.” His gaze dropped to her lips, to the gentle curve of them. They looked soft.

She grinned.

“What?”

She was smiling outright now. “Nothing.”

He gave her his sternest, most authoritative stare. “Allie?”

“You want to kiss me,” she said with a note of triumph in her tone.

Brandon didn’t know if he wanted to be exasperated or irritated. Of course he wanted to kiss her. And was this what their life would be like? Her always telling him how he felt? He looked down and chuckled.

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